What Is Raw Amber

A discussion about raw and polished amber.

Raw amber is just as it says. It is raw. It is unprocessed. It is as it is (except for washing the dirt off it ) found on the beach, dredged out of the ground or taken from the mine.

Here are some pictures of various forms of raw amber.

 

 

Note that there are many kinds of amber. They vary based on where and how the resin was deposited on the pine tree. So these pictures do not present all types that you may see, but they are enough to allow you to get the picture. Raw amber is rough with crust.

The raw amber shown above is Baltic Amber.  It is one of two non-mineral gemstones.  The other is pearls. You can read about Baltic Amber at this link.

And you can read more about raw amber here.

Any processing of the amber that takes the crust off makes it something other than raw amber. In other words, any bead, polished or shaped amber is not raw amber.  It is classified according to the way it is processed. See Classification Of Amber Gemstones.

You might be interested in reading about how beads are made from raw amber.  See How Beads Are Made.